Belly rolled into Manchester on Friday night as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of their second album King. The first set saw them perform the album in full whilst the second set comprised of tracks from debut Star, 2018's comeback Dove and a few surprises.
King was meant to be the album that sent Belly to the big arenas, at least that's how their record labels at the time saw it. In fact it was to be the end of the band, for good until 2016 saw them reform for a celebratory tour that led to Dove. Gail reveals during the second set that they're recording new material, laughing at suggestions that they play some, before telling us some of it is already "in the can". King was reissued earlier this year for Record Store Day and Belly are now touring the record.
The first set sees them perform the album in full in its original order, once they've sorted out some minor technical difficulties with the in-ear monitors that Gail puts down to "old people with new technology." King is louder live than it is on record, the Academy 2's muddy sound taking away some of the subtleties of the album's quieter moments.
However, the album's glorious harmonies still cut through, on the likes of Puberty, Superconnected, Red, Now They'll Sleep and Seal My Fate and transport the crowd, most of whom, like us, look old enough to have been there first time round, back thirty years in time to when these glorious songs soundtracked a time when this uplifting seemingly effortless indie pop music was a shining beacon of hope and joy as the dying embers of nearly two decades of Tory government was coming to a close. Those songs still resonate today, such is the simple undeniable ability of the hooks in them to grab you and not let go.
It's the deeper cuts from the record that threaten to steal the show though. Untitled And Unsung is dreamy and wistful, L'Il Ennio might have what Tanya calls a "soup of errors" in it but as Gail tells her the audience don't notice or care whilst Judas My Heart, the album's magical ending, ebbs, flows and surges with a piece of The Beatles' She Loves You thrown in for good measure over the outro. They take their bows and disappear for fifteen minutes.
They come back with a second set that leans heavily on their debut Star - opening with a trio of Low Red Moon, Gepetto and Slow Dog that has the crowd moving forward where many had stood further back and listened to King. Human Child is the first of two songs from 2018's Dove and whilst the audience are less familiar with it, the song's innate beauty has them listening rather than taking the opportunity to chat as so often happens when a band of Belly's vintage play new material.
Spaceman, a King-era b-side off the Seal My Fate single, follows and slows the pace right down, but the crowd sing along as if it were one of the biggest hits, a throwback to the day when a band's b-sides were as important a part of their repertoire as the singles to the hardcore fans. They pick the pace back up again with Dusted and before Feed The Tree there's an amusing interlude where Gail asks if we want to "rock like it's 1993". Tanya pulls a few hand signs and almost loses it, but as the song kicks in, Gail and Tanya, stand leaning back to back into each other and the unmistakable sound of their most familiar song fills Academy 2, it feels like we're transported back in time.
They finish the main set with Shiny One, the lead single from Dove, with Hendrix's Are You Experienced, a song they covered back in 1995, interspersed in it. It shows their ability to craft dreamy songs that connect hasn't dwindled with time. The Manchester crowd won't let them go that easily though and they return for Thief, another King-era b-side from Now They'll Sleep, where the crowd sing the harmonies back at them. They leave us with Full Moon Empty Heart, a slow-builder that explodes in life.
They take well-deserved extended bows, Gail in particular seeming unwilling to leave the stage. If the promise of a new album is true though it thankfully won't be the last time we see them. Belly might undeservedly not have the iconic status given to some of their contemporaries, but the sheer volume of love in the room for them in Manchester meant that the crowd was overwhelming in its own verdict on the subject.
Belly's official website can be found here and they are on Facebook. They play Sheffield Network (September 27), Bristol Trinity Centre (29), Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms (30) and London Camden Electric Ballroom (October 1) before touring the US in October / November / December performing King in full plus a second set.
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